Chapter 13
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With his button eyes, the Bedlam stares... well, all the time, but Haru rather feels he'd be staring right now even if he did have eyelids. His gaze moves over Baron, now standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Haru, and then looks to Haru herself.
"You gave him your penknife. Clever."
"Well, you made it quite clear I wasn't going to win by any ordinary means, and I knew you would enjoy a little drama," Haru says. "I thought you might not look too closely if we put on a show."
"A show implies some acting, though, and are you sure none of that was real?"
"Oh, we still have a lot of talking to do once we're out of here. But I think that'll be over tea." She glances to Baron, eyebrow raised. "Assuming you'll let me back this time."
He smiles ruefully. "Our doors will always be open to you, Haru."
"Glad to hear it."
"What makes you think you'll be going back?" the Bedlam asks.
"Well, you did promise that if I won this game..." Haru starts.
"Did you think it was ever going to be that easy?"
"What part of any of this was easy?" Haru demands, just as cobwebs unspool from the walls and pin Baron against the grandfather clock. The threads wrap around his wrists so that, while the penknife is still free, he cannot use it. "Oh, come on!" Haru snaps.
"You're not leaving here until I say so."
"So you're breaking the deal," Baron says.
"Quiet now. You've already said quite enough." With a snap of the Bedlam's fingers, more cobwebs rise to form a gag.
"You said that if I found all my friends, we could go free," Haru says. She points to Baron "I found them all, so unless you're breaking our deal–"
"Of course I'm breaking the deal," the Bedlam snarls. "I'm no fae; I'm not bound to any bargain. What else is left for me to keep to it? Honour? Integrity?" The Bedlam's smile near splits his face in two. "I think we all know such words mean nothing to me, save as weaknesses to be exploited in my prey."
There is movement beyond the Bureau windows; Haru instinctively glances that way before she can stop herself.
The Bedlam notices, and cackles. "All your plans have come to naught, mortal. You can win as many games as you like, but I will have your soul." He leans in. "And I'll tell you a little secret: those were your friends you left out there."
"I know they were."
The Bedlam's smile flickers. "You did?"
"Do you really think I wouldn't recognise my friends?" Haru demands. "Please, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice... Plus, I don't think you have the resources to pull together so many new puppets so quickly."
"So when you said you left the cat and crow outside out of distrust..."
"I was lying. You're not the only one here who can."
The Bedlam regards her with something almost approaching... respect? Haru's not sure she wants the respect of such a monster, but it's clear she's being reappraised. "Sneaky. I'm nearly impressed."
Haru shrugs. "Hey, I'm mortal, remember? I don't always have the luxury of the higher moral ground."
"So what was the plan? Leave them out there to distract me?"
"You heard that conversation then, huh?"
"Yes. You're sneaky – but not sneaky enough. I know they're out there, causing chaos, but do you really think I'd take my eyes off you for even a second while the game is at play? I've made that mistake before, I won't do it again. As you said, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice..."
"Then shame on you." Haru grins. "And I think you misunderstood that conversation."
"A desperate lie–"
"Because I'm the distraction."
The Bedlam freezes. Something that might even be fear flickers through his face. "What did you say?"
"Tell me, how are your friends doing?" Haru asks. "The ones you spun into mockeries of my companions."
"Friends?" the Bedlam sneers. " Puppets , you mean. I think you forget who I am."
Haru steps forward, her smile bared. "And I think you forget what kind of world I come from."
The door finally bursts open.
And in the space left behind stand three figures.
"They're not your puppets anymore, and they'd like a word with you."
There is a moment when the Bedlam doesn't move, he simply stares at the puppets he'd previously destroyed and then discarded.
And then he laughs.
"This?" he asks between cackles. " This is your grand plan? This is why you wanted my attention on you? Oh, Miss Haru, I am disappointed. No matter how you've reawoken my puppets, they will always be beholden to me. All you've done is secure your own failure." He clicks his fingers.
None of the Others move.
Everyone looks a little surprised by this.
"I think you'll find that how I've reawoken them does matter," Haru says. "And, again, not your puppets anymore. Creations."
The Bedlam gestures once more, but the Others don't jump to his will. A growl begins deep in his throat.
"No matter. I don't need them when you're still in my domain," he snarls and lunges for Haru, claws and jaws extended, as if to rip her eyes out himself. "I can deal with you all by mysel–"
Other Muta's paw slams into the Bedlam's distorted face and sends him reeling into the glass cabinet.
"Not on our watch," Other Muta growls. "Chicky, grab your Baron and get outta here. We've got this."
"You're sure?"
Other Hiromi smacks the Bedlam so hard with the cane Haru had left with her, it's probably oniy due to the stick's magical origins that it doesn't immediately snap.
Other Muta grins. "Very. Now get!"
Haru nods and runs over to where Baron is still entangled in the webbing. It's slackened with the Bedlam's inattention, but Haru still has to retrieve her penknife and set to severing the restraints. The gag is the first thing to be cut loose.
Baron stares at the puppets whale on their creator. "Haru, what...?"
"They're Creations now," she says. "Or... close enough for the distinction not to matter. I think."
Baron raises an eyebrow. "Is that... my cane?"
"Currently beating the Bedlam into next week? Yes."
"And the remains of my hat."
"Yes."
"...I liked that hat."
"Oh, boohoo, you have a dozen in reserve back at the Bureau." The cobwebs keeping Baron's wrist in place snap, and Haru starts on the other. "Look, I figured that, since they were already mostly alive and sentient, all they would need would be a little Creation magic to make them fully independent. Hence your hat and cane."
"That was quite the risk, Haru."
"Says the Creation who ran headfirst into the Bedlam's world and promptly got himself captured. At least I had a plan."
"And if it hadn't worked?"
"Then you'd still be down a hat and cane, and I'd probably be kicking the Bedlam between the legs and hoping it hurt. Are you really going to argue over losing a hat when it's just saved your life?"
"We could talk about other things instead."
Haru doesn't meet Baron's gaze. Dealing with his love confession had been easier when she'd been focused on goading the Bedlam. She severs the last of the bindings holding Baron's arms, and he catches her hand in his own.
"Haru, about what's been said–"
"Later."
"You cannot run away from the truth–"
"Why not?" she snaps. "You did."
He flinches as if stung.
There comes a roar, and the cobwebs tighten around them. Baron only just manages to kick his feet free before the threads can trap him once more. The Bedlam throws Other Hiromi aside. Claws – unnaturally elongated and razor-sharp – swipe at Haru. They fall short, but the Bureau creaks around them.
"Run now, argue later!" Other Muta bellows.
Haru grabs Baron's sleeve and hauls him out into the courtyard. At the far side, Muta and Toto have the portal home open, but Haru hasn't even passed Toto's column when the Bedlam erupts from the Bureau.
She glances back – only for a second, only for a heartbeat – but that's enough to see that the Bedlam has now utterly shed all pretence of humanity.
The creature that breaks through the doors skitters on eight spindly legs, larger than Haru, larger than Muta, the waistcoat and morning suit replaced with a black carapace. There's nothing to betray the guise it had once worn. Nothing, but the head...
The head still bears the shadow of the Baron mask. Eight emerald-green buttons crowd the face, and there's flecks of orange and cream around the mouth that's now made of mandibles and fangs.
"I'll have your soul even if I have to tear your eyes out myself!" the monster howls.
Haru turns to run – there's no way they can make it, but running is better than not, running is better than fighting – and too late she feels the web twisting around her ankle.
She turns to run –
And falls.
As Haru slams into the ground, she's surprised that her main emotion – beneath the bone-tingling terror and horror, of course – is annoyance. After everything, after all the hoops she's managed to jump through, after all the near-misses she's skimmed around, she's annoyed that it should come to one pesky strand of webbing that'll kill her. It really isn't fair.
And then she feels the Bedlam swooping towards her and fear takes a front seat again.
She rolls onto her back. Baron is moving to intercept the attack, but even he's not going to be fast enough – and, privately, Haru is relieved. After all, what is he going to do, save become a casualty?
Perhaps Baron was right. Love does make you self-sacrificing.
She raises her penknife, because she'll be damned if she won't go down without a fight, however brief. Her heart is in her throat and the Bedlam's claws are almost on her throat and perhaps if she goes for those uncanny valley green buttons she'll delay the inevitable if only for a moment and –
A hair's breadth from her face, the claws freeze.
The hands are shaking, bladed fingers trembling close enough to Haru's skin that the shifting air tickles. If she breathes too heavily, the claws will brush her.
With difficulty, Haru tears her gaze from the claws – too close too close too close – to the display of four pairs of buttoned eyes. Fury lines the Bedlam's brow as he strains to make the maiming blow.
"What... is... happening?" he snarls.
Haru skitters back, taking her throat and eyes out of tearing range, and then she sees it.
A single golden strand – as if crafted from pure light – rises from the back of the Bedlam's palm. It judders taut every time the Bedlam reaches for her. As Haru unsteadily gathers herself to her feet, more glimmering threads catch the light, now emerging from his fingers, his arms, his legs, like a spider at the centre of its web.
Or a puppet and its strings.
"What's bound to happen if you turn puppets into Creations," Haru answers. Her voice shakes. She doesn't care. "Their magic turns them into puppeteers."
The Bedlam roars and lunges for her again, but the strings pull tight and his body snaps back. He sways with that strange weightlessness afforded to marionettes, with limbs resting at awkward, uncomfortable angles.
The anger remains, but only in the face.
The body language is blank.
Empty.
"You're making a mistake," the Bedlam growls. Beneath his clawed, cruel feet, the cobblestones begin to glow. Tendrils of golden thread snake their way out. "Whatever path you choose, there'll be heartbreak, and just because you're not the one affected doesn't make it any less true."
"Is this the best you can come up with?" Haru demands. "Damn, I'm almost disappointed."
"You and I are the same!" The golden strands intertwine, intricately weaving a cocoon from the ground up. The Bedlam makes no attempt to escape. "We both will break the hearts of those who love us. Or do you really think your little dalliance with the Creation will end in any way but your death? He will outlive you a hundred lifetimes over, and you will leave him with nothing but grief."
Haru steps forward. The spiderweb sphere is almost as high as her shoulder now. "See, the thing is, that's just a fact of life, whereas you are actively eating people's souls. We are not the same." She glances back to Baron and imparts a raised eyebrow. "And if you think he's going to outlive me by a dozen lifetimes, let alone hundreds, I fear you desperately overestimate his common sense."
"If you ever loved him, you would let him go. Instead you dig your claws ever deeper into him, promising love and joy, but ultimately it is nothing but an illusion; a precursor to an eternity of pain–"
"Oh, shut up."
The last of the strands connect at the sphere's peak, and finally the Bedlam is silent.
"Geez, thought he'd never shut up." Muta steps up beside Haru. "You doing alright, Chicky?"
Haru takes a deep breath in and, in the sudden lack of any life or death situations, her body makes a myriad of complaints known. She massages her shoulder; as the immediate ache of having body slammed the courtyard cobbles fades, she feels bruising and the warm wetness of blood.
"I feel like the ball in a ping pong game, and I'm fairly certain I could do with a bout of therapy, but I don't know any therapists who specialise in soul-sucking doppelgängers, but yeah. Other than that, I'm rosy."
"So… just another day at the office, huh?"
"Basically."
Haru peels her gaze away from the Bedlam's prison, and looks instead to what remains of the Other Bureau.
They are… different. Not only in how they compare to their original counterparts, but also in how the Bedlam created them. They still have their button eyes – that will likely be a permanent feature – but Baron's Creation magic has clearly done more than simply grant them their freedom.
Other Toto is still a magpie, but his feathers have a grey, grainy texture to them. The only part that is fully black is where Haru had tied the ribbon around his leg. It is no longer a ribbon, but now is talon and feather, startlingly black against the rest of his stony facade.
Other Muta is perhaps the closest to familiarity. Baron's hat is resting at a jaunty angle over his missing eye, and it seems to have bonded seamlessly to his fur. The rest of him is not so seamless; along his joints, there are visible stitches, marking his stuffed toy origins, but subtle enough to draw nothing more than a curious second glance.
And Other Hiromi is…
Perhaps it is a consequence of having been so thoroughly discarded by the Bedlam, Haru thinks. Of becoming a Creation when she was nothing more than a damaged, lifeless puppet – for her form makes no pretence at humanity. Other Hiromi is now a rag doll all the way through, with button eyes and woollen hair and cloth skin, and her missing leg is still absent, Baron's cane balancing her, but she is alive .
Haru takes a step towards them, and then falters with a wince. Her body is still appraising her various pains, apparently. "How is everyone?" she asks. "I know this isn't exactly the… perfect solution, but it's the best I could think of in the time I had, otherwise I would have tried to find something more–"
Haru never finishes, instead finding herself abruptly wrapped up in a cushioned embrace.
"You got us free of the Bedlam's influence," Other Hiromi says. "That's all that matters."
Other Muta opens a paw, and golden strands dance on his palm. "Yeah, and yer got us these neat puppet powers too, so… there's that."
"All in all," Other Toto says, "a happy ending."
"And… the Bedlam?"
The strands in Other Muta's palm shimmer brighter, and when they fade, the Bedlam's prison has been converted into the same snow globe sphere that he had once entrapped the Bureau in. Other Muta rolls it in his paw. "He ain't gonna be much trouble now."
Baron steps up to Haru's other side. It's strange; he looks so out of place, when both Muta and Toto have a counterpart present. Haru doesn't miss the fleeting wariness in the Others' expressions. "And yourselves?" he asks.
Other Muta grins. "We ain't out to cause trouble, either."
"Forgive me, I failed to clarify myself. I meant, where will you go now? We have room at the Sanctuary, should you need shelter–"
"Nah, I think we're good."
"Here?" Baron asks.
Other Toto lands on Other Muta's shoulder. "Why not? It's our home."
"It's a wreck," Muta says.
"A fixer-upper," Other Muta amends.
"There's web coming out of every wall." Muta points to a house. "That building is at a forty-five degree angle."
"But it's ours," Other Hiromi says.
"And I don't think we'd really belong in your world," Other Toto says.
"You could," Haru says. "If you want to."
"And live forever in their shadows?" Other Muta demands. "No thanks."
"I think," Other Hiromi says, "it's about time we get to discover who we are. Away from the reflections we were cast from. But, you know, that doesn't mean you can't visit."
"Or stay." Other Muta shrugs. "What? It was only the Bedlam's meddling that made you freeze up here. Now he's all tied up, there's no reason you can't stick around."
Haru doesn't look to Baron, but she still hears it: the subtle hitch in his breathing.
She shakes her head. "Thanks for everything, but I think I still have a lot of living to do in my world." She slips her hand into Baron's and joins him at his side. The smile she offers him is tired, wan. But present. "And there are some conversations that still need to be had."
Other Muta shrugs again. "Was worth asking."
"So," Toto says. "Where to now?"
Haru turns towards the portal. Through it, she can see a glimmer of the Sanctuary – her Sanctuary – standing on the other side.
"Home."